Monday, October 29, 2012

I came across this article the other day. I think it totally sounds like what a human voice would sound like under water. Plus, Beluga whales are so cute that this just makes you smile. With Hurricane Sandy bearing down on us, a cute little distraction like this is great!
Today is going to be an exciting day ( for me). I find crazy events like this invigorating and exciting. But I know for many, the next two days will be terrifying and sad for those who stand to loose their homes in the epic amount of flooding that will consume our coastlines. Stay safe everyone!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Monday, October 22, 2012

Heart Rockin' Mama piqued my curiosity about how to share instagram photo's online so that those with out an account are free to be included. Turns out, there are so many sites and platforms. I found one which I personally liked the look of. I want to see if I can use instagram as a bloggy-ish type thing.
I am doing so many repeats, I'd like to cut out the middle man.
For instance, I am a rabid instagrammer, then I blog my instagram photos. I publish for my own personal collection a book of my instagram photos through Keepsy, and a separate book of relatively the same photos with their story, through Blurb of my blog.
What if I just write what I want to say in the captions of instagram? ( which I can do with voice recognition instead of typing easily on my phone... Woot!) and use this platform to share those photos that I was just going to put again here...
Make sense?
I dunno.
Let's try it for a little bit, shall we?
Here is the direct link to my photos. I will begin to write more on instagram to see if it works.
:>)

Saturday, October 20, 2012

The boys are loving dancing.
It is one of the first activities that they have not slowly lost interest in.
You know the halfway through Mantra when a new interest is explored but not enjoyed as anticipated, "I don't want to go, it isn't like what I thought".
I have heard that song many times.
I always let them explore an interest, you never know what will be there thing. But it takes a while to find your thing, and we have had a high turn over of activities in our lives. I always try to find out what they don't like about it, is it the way the class is run, sucking out the joy, is the instructor really kid friendly? Sometimes when adults offer classes to kids, they don't enjoy kids really, they just see a niche market. I am usually like, "But honey I signed up for 10 weeks for 450.00 dollars, you have only been to three classes… "
It's my knee jerk reaction.
But in the end when I think about how excited they were to try and begin, and how unhappy they are at present, I know that they are not just giving up. When a pleasure activity becomes a chore and brings on tears, you gotta move on and give high fives for checking it out! It's not a life skill like reading, or math that they are bailing out on.
It was an interest.
Anyway, that's just my take. Sometimes it feels good to see in writing what you believe.
I would rather have a quitter who tries new things constantly than a forced to stay, who learns to try very little.
Anyway, it's not this way with dance! Dance is hard, repetitive, you have to master each move, remember sequences, dance in front of others. My kids take an hour long class with other kids and then immediately afterwards they do a private lesson with their dear dancing friend.
That is two hours of physical and mental activity.
They never make the ride home!
They can't wait to go back every week. I see them dancing everywhere. I love it, they love it.
It's so good.
They ask about what happens when dance is over, will there be more? What about summer, can we go? Can we go on any other day besides Tuesday?
The best part is watching them. Each week they get better and I see it happening. I can't wait for their winter performance.
I may cry.
It's what I do when I see my quitters engaging fully in an act that brings out pure joy.
I know it's in them at all times, but when I see it manifest in front of me, it blows me away each time.

Friday, October 19, 2012

I am surprised it took me this long to get this boy on here. I suppose I should start from the very beginning:
One night in August, the dogs made it loud and clear that they had something cornered in the garage. Addy went out to investigate. I soon heard him calling my name from the garage. I looked out the window and saw him holding a little gray ball up in the air. I was expecting raccoon but was seeing a kitten.
News spread quick, and the kids were on my heels. It turns out this little guy was very friendly, very thirsty, and very hungry. We held it, fed and watered it. I scrounged up a low box and made a feeble litter pan, and stuck him in a dog crate with a cozy blanket. My plans were for it to go with Addy to the Vet office and he could try and find his owner. At the mere suggestion of this, out of nowhere, Evren burst into tears. Full on lip quivering.
No! WHHHHYYYY? I love this kitty.
So I explained that he probably had a home and….
Just picture a sobbing boy clutching a happy purring kitty.
Anyway, we would foster it, and if we found the owner we needed to return it.
Yeah! He was so happy.
But as days passed and no looking owner appeared, I called animal control. I was informed that a litter of gray kittens were dumped in the area and 5 were already found.
Sooo, we now live with a cat.
A cute, funny, cuddly, well loved kitty.
Oh, and Ev named him Mystery.
:>)

Thursday, October 18, 2012

On Tuesdays, in the very near future, our Huckleberry Hill Project (which I haven't blogged about because I am a slacker...) will be meeting at a beautiful farm.
The farmhouse is stunning.
I will get pictures of it soon.
But for now there is this!

Evren has been on a mushroom and fungus kick.
He is so interested in them, as you can clearly see by this extra cute video…

:>)
Every time after it rains, he wants to venture into the woods and look for his beloved mushrooms.
It's been so great.
He seems to find so much be beauty and goodness along the way.
We are going on our first guided mushroom hike this Sunday with the Mycological society.
I love that he is so fired up about it!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Groupon had an awesome deal for this place.
So I bought some for the kids.
There was a bit of a learning curve as they was no one up there to help them, and they had to hook up there own safety clips and gear to the lines on their own.
Marlin and Kaya did not have much of an issue, but it was hard for Ev to remember all of the steps.
Addy and I had to always be watching the kids to be sure they hooked up right, because if they did get mixed up, the consequences wouldn't be so great.
Even at the easiest level, they were 15 feet up!
It really was so much fun,
and I am sure we will be back in the spring to do it all again!